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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26214895">The Long Road Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandoFando_Spoonie/pseuds/RandoFando_Spoonie'>RandoFando_Spoonie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diverges from Canon before mid-credit scene, F/M, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 09:14:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,350</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26214895</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandoFando_Spoonie/pseuds/RandoFando_Spoonie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Booker's been getting his booze at the same little shop for three weeks when the cashier Alice 'Call me Al' decides to befriend him. Could this be Booker's chance to fix himself and find his way home? Or could getting involved with a mortal again just cause him more pain and drive him further into darkness?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Orginal Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Long Road Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Okay so this idea came to me as I was drifting off to sleep last night and would not leave me alone so, here we go!</p><p>Any similarities to the works of other authors on this archive is purely coincidental; all works original.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">She'd seen him almost every shift she worked. She was pretty sure he was drunk when he came in, grabbed the bottles off the shelf, and shambled his way to the register. He'd been coming in a few weeks when she finally took the chance of making more than the usual conversation.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Back again.” She smiled as she scanned his purchases.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Yeah.” He almost grunted the word.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“It's nice to see you again.” She offered and he looked up, surprised. “Regulars are nice to have. You're in almost every shift I work.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He blinked at her, “Oh, I didn't realize.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“It's okay, most people don't notice.” She bagged up his bottles and gave him his total.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Maybe I should have, but most people don't notice me either.” He passed over the money.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You're hard to forget. At least for me.” She realized she was borderline flirting with him. She got him his change and then at the last moment scribbled something on his receipt before passing it and his change over, “Here you go. See you next time.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He took the change and receipt, nodding. “See you then.” He took his bag with the first smile she'd ever seen on his face as he headed out.</p><p class="western"> </p>
<hr/><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Booker shoved the receipt and change in his pocket as he headed back to his apartment. That had been interesting. He was so used to blending in that being told he stood out shocked him. Maybe she was just being kind, he wasn't sure. After two centuries he wasn't sure what it meant to stand out. It was strange.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He got home, opened a bottle and took a drink while emptying his pockets. He was about to toss the receipt when he noticed the writing on the back. A name, a number, and '<em>Call me? Please?'</em> written in hasty but still pretty script. He frowned, tempted to just toss the receipt but a pair of pretty grey eyes and a soft, kind smile flashed through his mind and the 'please' tugged at him. He sighed, he was getting soft. Or maybe he was finally sick of being lonely.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He trudged over to his bed, note in one hand, bottle in the other and sighed. He'd give her an hour, maybe two to get off work and then he'd call.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He lasted half an hour before he dialed the number and tried to remember to breathe as he waited for her answer.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Hello?” A confused voice answered and he chuckled.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You asked me to call you.” He replied, his lips twitching when he heard her laugh.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“I did, huh?” He could hear the sound of the city and figured she was walking somewhere.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Mmm, you did.” He set his bottle down, “Even said please.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">She laughed again, “I wasn't sure you would. I don't even know your name.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He blinked, “My friends call me Booker.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Booker, I like it.” He just knew she was smiling, “My friends call me Al.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Not Alice?” He looked at the note again.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Not usually. It's on my name tag at work because it's my legal name.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“So, what would you like me to call you?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">There was a pause and then a chuckle, “Well, if I'm going to call you Booker, it's only fair you call me Al.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Al it is.” He grinned, he couldn't remember having this much fun talking to someone who wasn't part of the Guard in centuries. “It's nice to meet you Al.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You too Booker.” There was jangling of keys and the click of a lock. “So, if this isn't too much too fast, when's the last time you ate?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Booker blinked, that was a very good question, “I don't remember.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">The keys got set down and he heard her moving around her home a bit, “Well, it's almost dinner time, did you want to meet some where? There's a cafe not far from the shop.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You assume I live near the shop.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Don't you?” She questioned, he grinned realizing he'd thrown her off a bit.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Maybe I just go there because you have the booze I like.” He paused, “Or maybe your shop has the prettiest cashiers.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">She laughed then, high and long, he could almost picture her clutching her side with her free hand as she did.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Are you flirting with me Booker?” She asked between giggles as she calmed.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“You started it.” He commented, she had really.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Mmm, so I did. Still doesn't answer either of my questions.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He made himself sit up, scrub a hand down his face, “Which ones? You've asked a few.” He rebutted, trying to focus.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Another giggle, “Mmm, I did, didn't I?” He heard her groan softly a moment and boy did that not help, she sighed softly so she must've been stretching, “Well, let's start with whether or not you live near the shop and know the cafe I'm talking about.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He sighed softly, “I do and I do.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Oh good, thought I'd be impressed if you came very far for some shitty booze.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Ah, but like I said, could be the pretty girl and not the booze I'm coming for.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">She laughed, “So you <em>are</em> flirting with me.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“I guess I am.” He got up, made his way to his kitchen and got a drink of water. “I'm a bit out of practice, how am I doing?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Another laugh, could a person become addicted to a sound, he wasn't sure but he thought so.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Not bad. Little rough around the edges but I like it.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Now who's flirting?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Like you said, I started it, can't very well chicken out now can I?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“No, guess not.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Good.” He heard her moving again, “So, will you be joining me for dinner?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He leaned against the counter, “I really shouldn't.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Why not?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“I'm not sure we have time for all the reasons it would be a bad idea.” He answered honestly.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">There was a long silence, if he hadn't been able to hear her breathing he'd wonder if she hung up on him.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Are they why you drink?” She asked softly.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Yes.” He answered simply.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“They must be very painful reasons.” Her voice was still soft, but there was no pity in it.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“They are.” He agreed, eyeing the bottle across the room, “Very.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Do you share them with anything but the bottle?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He blinked, “No.” He frowned, “Not in a long time.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Another pause, “Maybe you should.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Why?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Why not?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He frowned, “I... I don't know. I've tried, before, but it always caused those I shared it with pain. I'm sick of causing people I care about pain.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Do you think it would cause them more or less pain to know you've been suffering alone?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He made a soft sound, it could have been a laugh, a sob, both, neither, “How is someone so young so smart?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“I'm not that young.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“No?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“No, I'm 35.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He blinked a few times, “Oh, well, still.” He couldn't tell her he was nearly 250, “You look younger.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Why thank you.” She sounded like she was grinning again, “But stop deflecting, you look and sound like you could use a friend. Do you?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Now it was his turn to pause, did he? He'd just destroyed his second family, did he dare risk letting someone close again? Someone mortal? He sighed heavily, closing his eyes.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Yes.” He admitted, feeling a pressure behind his eyes and he fought against it, tears wouldn't help right now.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Will you meet me at the cafe in half an hour?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Another heavy sigh pulled from him, half an hour would give him time to sober up some, shower, shave maybe.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Okay.” He agreed.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Okay. Thank you Booker.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He swallowed thickly, “No, thank <em>you</em> Al.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“See you soon?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">He smiled again, nodding even though she couldn't see him, “Yeah Al, I'll see you soon.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">They hung up and Booker shook his head, he was pretty positive this was a very bad idea but dammit, when had that ever stopped him before? He put his phone on the counter and headed towards his tiny bathroom to clean up.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Feel free to follow me on Tumblr: RandoFando-Spoonie</p><p>As always, kudos &amp; comments aren't necessary but appreciated.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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